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Irwin police chief breaks hand in confrontation

Irwin Police Chief Joe Pocsatko has a broken bone in his right hand -- an injury suffered while struggling with a suspect who he says tried to strike him in the face with a phone.

"It hurts," said Pocsatko, wearing a cast at the police station Wednesday afternoon.

But 26-year-old suspect Randolph Piper denied the allegations as he was being taken away in handcuffs, and he claims he was only defending himself.

"I have video proof proving my innocence," Piper told WTAE's Ashlie Hardway. "I was attacked by him while trying to file a complaint against one of his officers. I was dialing 911 to get more help with the state police down here."

Pocsatko said Piper approached him around 8:30 a.m. and wanted to complain about speeders in an alley. He said he told Piper that he would take the complaint, but Piper didn't want him to.

Pocsatko said he then checked the registration on Piper's vehicle, and he claims Piper pulled something out of his pocket. Pocsatko said he pushed Piper back, and the item in Piper's hand turned out to be a cellphone. That's when he said he took Piper into the station.

"Once we got into the police station door, he took the phone which is a direct line to 911 and said he was going to call 911," Pocsatko said. "I said, 'You're with a police officer, you're not calling 911, you're already with a police officer.' Took the phone off him to hang it back up, and he turned and struck me with it in the face."

The broken emergency phone at the police station was in pieces when Hardway arrived. She asked Piper how it broke, and Piper answered, "From him taking it out of my hand, and it hitting the wall."

Piper was taken to jail and charged with aggravated assault on a police officer.

In 2010, Piper was charged with assaulting an officer in Morgantown, W.Va. He said, "That was years ago, defending myself against a former friend that tried to attack me with a knife."

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